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Planting
Days to maturity
Seasonal yields
Sow indoors · Direct sow · Transplant outdoors
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Plant · P-657
File Sassafras
Sassafras albidum
The dried, ground leaves of this aromatic tree are file powder, the thickener stirred into gumbo, and its root bark was once the classic flavoring in root beer before the oil was banned as a carcinogen in 1960. Root bark tea served as a traditional spring tonic. The tree feeds wildlife heavily - birds eat the fruit, deer browse the leaves year-round, and four swallowtail butterflies raise their caterpillars on it. A single tree readily colonizes disturbed ground by root suckers, and its leaf litter suppresses germination of many plants growing beneath it.
Record at a glance
Growing profile
- Sun
- Full Sun · Partial Sun
- USDA zone
- USDA 4–9
- Soil
- Sand · Loam · Clay
- Moisture
- Dry · Well-Drained · Moist
Vertical layer
Canopy- Soil pH
- 4.5–6.8
- Plant type
- Deciduous Tree
- Mature height
- 30–60 ft
- Mature spread
- 25–40 ft
- Plant spacing
- 24–60 ft
- Root type
- Tap
- Spread pattern
- Both
Keep exploring
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The deeper layer
Plan what comes next.
- Primary
- Locked ecological function
- Secondary
- Locked ecological function
- Byproduct
- Locked ecological function
Behind the record
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